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Men's AYOF Hockey Team Announced

The Australian men’s hockey team for the 2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF) has been announced.

Twenty-year-old Malcolm Kemp is one of the 16 athletes selected on the team. He is an experienced AYOF campaigner having competed at the 2007 Festival and will be sharing his attitude with his teammates.

“The AYOF is a great opportunity. It’s good fun and representing your country at any level is a wonderful experience,” Kemp said.

The team will compete against India, Malaysia and Great Britain at the AYOF in Sydney from January 6-18, 2009. Kemp sees the competition as no easy task.

“Great Britain and India will be hard to beat, while Malaysia is also fairly decent,” he said.

Olympic bronze medallist Jason Duff will coach the team and says his overall aim is to develop a squad capable of winning the 2009 Junior World Cup in Malaysia and Singapore in June 2009.

"While it may be in the back of the player’s minds to try and impress the newly appointed national coach in Ric Charlesworth, from a coaching point of view the focus will be on squad and team development for the Junior World Cup," said Duff.